18 Nisan 2011 Pazartesi

Kickboxer: Two-Wheeled Madness

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You may remember Ian McElroy. A while back he wanted to stick a Subaru boxer four cylinder into a motorcycle. Well, that simply wasn’t awesome enough for him. Now he wants to build a motorcycle equipped with a turbo-charged diesel mill. And both-wheel-drive.
McElroy’s original Kickboxer concept was nutty enough: A rip-snorting STI engine shoehorned into the space between two motorcycle wheels. It was an awesome concept, an over-muscled streetfighter with a blind hatred for anything conventional. Now the Kickboxer is even angrier, and burning oil.

The new concept is built around a four-cylinder diesel boxer built by Fuji Heavy Industries (parent company of Subaru). It’s not as pretty as a riced-out STI thumper, but produces far more torque, a jet-like diesel whine, and copious amounts of black smoke. A win on all accounts.
The Kickboxer II also has an updated front swingarm design and new turbo plumbing.
Lastly, McElroy has designed a two-wheel-drive version of the Kickboxer II. The system uses a circuitous triple-chain setup with a jack shaft, idler sprocket and a drive axle. It apparently works in computer models and is feasible for the road.
McElroy says he has all the parts for the Kickboxer draw up in CAD and could have them CNC’d in a jiff—if he can get some funding. Then the Kickboxer can break out of the virtual world and into ours, snarling and spitting vaporized rubber and incredulity.
Source: Autoblog
Below: Original Subaru-powered Kickboxer concept.